Book Summary: Can't Hurt Me

Master your mind and defy the odds

📖 The Book in 3 Sentences

1. David talks about his early childhood and growing up in Buffalo, NY dealing with the struggles of his abusive father and then escaping with his mother to Brazil, IN to encounter stuttering and academic issues and trying to fit in during his years at high school.
2. After high school and serving 4 years in the Airforce, David is working as a pest exterminator in Indianapolis where the experience pushes him to try out for the Navy SEALs and undergo the training program 3 times.
3. After his Navy career, David continues to test the limits of himself by becoming an ultramarathon athlete facing various trials and difficulties but using his attitude and mental strength to overcome them.

🖼 Impressions

Can't Hurt Me is an entertaining and eye opening read from start to finish.  The book is an autobiographical journey from Goggins’s difficult childhood to his successful career as a military leader and public speaker. He recounts traumas, setbacks, mental disorders, physical injuries, and interpersonal struggles in his journey, with the intent of using his experiences to assist others in achieving their goals. David Goggins uses these moments to encourage the reader to engage in self-improvement by facing up to one's weaknesses and taking ownership.

👥 Who should read it?

Can't Hurt Me is recommended for anyone interested in a story about self-improvement through adverse circumstances and using sheer determination and self-drive to push beyond the limits of ourselves.

💡 How the book changed me

• It made me reflect on moments where I have peronally failed and how simply with my own attitude, application and effort should refocus and keep trying despite the challenges
• If I am taking things easy and not pushing out of my comfort zone, I am not really growing as an individual and I should often seek to push my personal limits
• To work hard for myself and understand that success fades fast - greatness must be sustained over a long period of time with constant application and effort

✍️ My Top 3 Quotes

You must do your own homework.  Know the terrain you're operating in, when and where you can push boundaries, and when you should fall in line.

Our culture has become hooked on the quick fix, the life hack, efficiency.  Everyone is on the hunt for that simple action algorithm that nets maximum profit with the least amount of effort. There's no denying that this attitude may get you some of the trappings of success, if you're lucky, but it will not lead to a calloused mind or self-mastery.  If you want to master the mind and remove your governor, you'll have to become addicted to hard work.  Because passion and obsession, even talent, are only useful tools if you have the work ethic to back them up.

The Buddha famously said that life is suffering.  I'm not a Buddhist, but I know what he meant and so do you.  To exist in this world, we must contend with humiliation, broken dreams, sadness, and loss.  That's just nature.  Each specific life comes with its own personalized portion of pain.  It's coming for you.  You can't stop it.  And you know it.

📒 Summary + Notes

Most of my notes I simply documented down the challenges David suggests for my own reference to come back to later.  I actually more so spent time hearing him recount his life story and flicking through the pages.

Chapter 1 - I Should Have Been a Statistic

Challenge #1

Write down your "bad cards" - everything that is currently standing in your way and take a good look at it and think about flipping it on it's head.

Chapter 2 - Getting Ahead

Challenge #2

The accountability mirror - write down all your insecurities, dreams, and goals on post-its and tag up your mirror.  If you need more education, remind yourself you need to start working hard because you're not smart enough!  Post your goals up and change them as you achieve them.

Chapter 3 - The Impossible Task

Challenge #3

Step outside your comfort zone on a regular basis.

Get your journal out and write down a whole list of things that make you uncomfortable (especailly if they are good for you) - now go do them!

Keep doing uncomfortable things are move the needle forward slowly.

Chapter 4  - Taking Souls

Challenge #4

Choose any competitive situation - no matter how you're treated there is only one way to earn respect. Excellence.

Work harder on your current projects than you have ever before.  If you don't get game time, dominate practice.  Put in time off the field.

Chapter 5 - Armored Mind

Challenge #5

Focus on what you cannot change, but what you can change.

Choose any obstacle in your way, or set a new goal, and visualize ovecoming or achieving it.

Chapter 6 - It's Not About a Trophy

Challenge #6

Go back over your life and check the obstacles you've faced.  Feel what it was like to overcome those struggles and how your multiple attempts to try and fail kept repeating until you finally made it.

Set ambitious goals and let those past victories help carry you to new personal bests.

Chapter 7 - The Most Powerful Weapon

Challenge #7

Push past your normal stopping point.  Overcome the governor in your mind.

Get to your limit and push just 5-10% past it.

Chapter 8 - Talent Not Required

Challenge #8

Be conscious of your time spent during the day, schedule in the important stuff you need to do and stick to it!

Chapter 9 - Uncommon Amongst Uncommon

Challenge #9

If you think you've found success, respect or status and are satisfied - think again.  You have the ability to always find more.  Greatness is not something that if you meet it once it stays with you forever.  It evaporates very quickly.

Try to sustain greatness over an extended period of time.

Chapter 10 - The Empowerment of Failure

Challenge #10

Recall your most recent heart wrenching failure.  Break out the journal and actually write this down.

Write out all the good things, everything that went well from your failures.

Note then how you handled your failure. Did it affect your life and relationships?

How did you think throughout the preparation for and during the execution stage of your failure?  You have to know how you were thinking at each step because it's all about mindset, and that's where most people fall short.

Go back through time and make a list of what you would fix.